Social Media tools for the PR professional

I actually lost track of the time I have been working at AONIA, it’s all fine and dandy working here. I just finished another article for the press page – Knowledge section. We here at AONIA have one critical KPI (Key Performing Index), which is to regularly churn out knowledge articles on topics we are strong in and have an acute interest towards. “Effects of Social Media"

Ever since I started my placement at AONIA, my boss has helped me and he has tasked me to write about Social Media and its related news that affects the communication and marketing industry. For me it was a perfect fit, as on my own time I am often seen reading up about the social media and going to try out the upcoming social media sites.

In this blog, I will discuss about two of the social media tools that can be especially useful for the PR professional. I would love to hear comments from everyone if they had tried these tools as well.

First up is this social media site that goes by the name of HARO ( Help A Reporter Out), it is a free online resource in which PR professionals can directly help a reporter out by answering to a query they have posted online. Every day, HARO will email individuals queries posted by journalists grouped to various topics, those who are expert in specific field can reply to those queries. PR professionals could sign up for this service and monitor the daily queries, in an event when a journalist post a query that the PR professional could match with one of their client, they can step in and provide the needed information. In turn, the client will get media coverage within that media, without the need to seek out to journalist and pitch to them. Also, HARO being online, it has a wider media reach and it will be a strategic move for PR professionals to look beyond local shores to spread its message about animal welfare.

The next tool is called Pitch engine it enabled users to openly create and share their own content, while including images, videos and attachments at no cost. Pitch engine allows organisations get media releases without the need to get individual media contacts and media releases posted here are seen by more eyeballs. It works a little bit like wired agencies, the difference being that each release is only viewable for 30 days ,it can be posted free of charge and the press release can be reproduce on other media.

Personally, I prefer Pitch engine over HARO for now as HARO media queries are restricted to mostly USA, Australia and UK. There are hardly any queries from Singapore or Asia. However, I can foresee that if more journalists/writers within Asia start to make use of HARO, it will definitely change the way PR pitches are done in the future.